7$ Challenge for 9 Meals from "Jan from NYC Saves Money"

This 7$ Challenge for 9 Meals is from a youtuber I follow:  Jan from NYC Saves Money

Click that link to watch the vid for more background if you like.   Or, forge ahead.

Here are prices from a local grocery store I can walk to..saving fuel costs.  The local store is on a reservation and does not charge the state sales tax of 6% (yes, even on basic food we pay state sales tax).

1 bulb garlic:    0.89

3 loose carrots:   0.89

3 d'anjou pears   1.13

1lb margarine    0.99

5lb whole wheat flour  1.99

1 doz med eggs  1.09

Total: $6.91

It might be a boring 9 meals...but it will work!  Jan assumes 3 meals per day so we will go with that.

And it will be floury.  Yes, a smaller amount of flour would make room for more veg or a bag of lentils, but 1lb isn't enough calories (and this is cheap calories) assuming1850cals per day which is about what I eat.   Also, the 5lbs for 1.99 is a short term deal.  The 1lb and 2lb bags of flour cost OVER 2$!!!

I went with eggs over dry beans or lentils.  Partly because the eggs allow me to make noodles and pancakes better than beans or lentils do.  More versatile.  But I am saving that 9cents left over, and there will be at least 1/2 the flour left.  The margarine comes up 1T short from what is required below so that day will be 70 calories down, but my average will be fine.  

Step 1: put 1/2c flour in a jar with some no-chlorine room temp water and put a cloth over the top.  Hope for some fermentation over the next couple of day.  Help it by putting it in a warm spot.  If it ferments by the 3rd day, use it for bread on the next round of 3 day cooking for more variety beyond the pancakes and tortillas below.

220 calories to be consumed eventually...

Breakfast every day: 1/2C flour, 1 egg with the white beaten up as leavening, the yolk just stirred into the flour with a bit of water.  Fold in the whites.  Fry up in margarine like bad pancakes.  Serve with 1/2 the pear sliced up and more margarine to make sure there are enough calories.  Tap water to drink.  4T marg total used.

220+63+210+48 = 541 calories

Lunch every day: 2 eggs fried or scrambled with 1/6 of the garlic in 3T margarine on a tortillas(made with 1/2 C flour and 2T melted margarine) with 1/2 the carrot shredded up.  Tap water.

126+220+350+14=710

Supper every day:  Make egg drop soup with 1T margarine, 1/2 carrot, 1/6 of the garlic, and an egg.  Make tortillas with 1/2C flour, 1T melted margarine and water.  Fry those up in a dry skillet and spread with 2T margarine to get the calories up. And the other half of the pear.  Tap water.

220+63+280+13+12+48 = 635

1886 calories X 2  = 3772

1816 for the 3rd day added to that is 5588total calories consumed.

That is an average of 1862.67 calories per day.  Very close to my needs.  

Yes, bit shy on vitamins, protein and flavor.  I will have used less than 1/3 of the flour.  Hopefully that sourdough started in step 1 worked. If I skipped the flour on the next trip, I would have $1.99 to spend on something other than flour.  And that 9cents left over would of course be saved in the grocery budget so $7.07 to spend.

Free things I can add to that to increase the vitamins include:

Pine needle or spruce needle tea from trees I know are not sprayed with chemicals.  Vitamin C is in that.  

Dandelion leaves, clover leaves, plantain leaves, and other wild edibles in areas I know are not sprayed with chemicals can be gathered.  These go in soup, scrambled eggs, or raw as a salad or added to the lunch wraps.   They can also be fried up with garlic as a side dish.

The next trip to the store, assuming the same sale flyer is in effect,  would add a pound of lentils, 1.09

Take out the 1.99 for the flour, and the total comes to $6.01

99cents savings!  Added to the 9cents from before, I have $1.08 for the next trip, and with lentils in my soup, or mashed as a spread on the tortillas, I have more protein and more options.  I would cut the added calories from the margarine amounts, saving some of that for the next round.  With the sour dough starter probably going, I can make bread/pancakes without adding oil to the batter/dough.  Of course the "waste" starter from cutting in half and refeeding would be fried up as pancakes or used to coat carrot slices as fritters, or some of those delicious wild greens mixed in for fritters (actually...that sounds good in general, might try it).

With an extra 1.08 the next 3 days would have $8.08 available to spend.  Buy the same again, because 1/3 of the flour is still there.  By the end of THOSE 3 days, would have $2.07 left (8.08-6.01).  I would get another 5lbs of flour as a stock up, and the usual list minus the margarine, leaving 99cents.  By now I would be super sick of the pears and carrots and garlic but what are you going to do?  They are reliably cheap and flour is cheaper than potatoes...the other super cheap veg.  Onions are an option but generally though you get more weight, the calorie content is low and the flavor/serving per $1 is less than a bulb of garlic.  

Once I had 3$, I would hit the discount bins and maybe get those bruised bananas or a bag of onions or if it was spring and I owned a bucket of dirt or more, a pack or two of radish seeds.  You can grow those in a couple of weeks to the point you can harvest greens.  3-6 weeks and you have radishes.  12 weeks and you have more seeds.  

Also...I look for carrots, even bagged and trimmed ones sometimes work...with a bit of top or full tops.  Carrot tops are basically parsley so can be used fresh as a green/herb and dried as an herb for later.  Nutritious!

And I save and toast, or plant, the seeds from squash and melons.    Don't forget that dry beans, peas, lentils can be sprouted as long as they are whole beans/peas/lentils not split.  

Finally, the lack of flavor here is difficult.  Another option for seeds is herbs.  Pretty easy to grow indoors and they are nutritious and make these meals less boring as well as being encouraging because you take control of a tiny bit of your life.

NOTES:

While playing this headgame with myself, I have noticed that I couldn't come up with a personally applicable scenario where I had only 7$ for food for 3 days, no stocked items, my chickens/eggs were gone/not available, no friend was offering help before I even asked, no family member would just make sure I had food, or all the catchable wildlife and edible plants on my property were gone.  HOLY PRIVILEGE BATMAN!!!!  Being middle aged, female, cysgender, white, educated, and connected to a community of people who trust me and give a crap, having living family I am in touch with, being reasonably healthy and having a job!   Jeez. Then there is owning land outright, which is due to the above,   My mind boggled at how much I have and how little others doe.  

Pantry Challenge: The End of the End

 OK, there may be a final final final end of the end report if I manage to do a proper inventory.

I had a bauble on Jan 30th.  I had packed some lovely soup for lunch (smoked duck, gingered carrots, garlic cloves, can of tomatoes, dried mushrooms, dried thyme leaves and rosemary saved from my garden, onion granules, and a low sodium bouillon cube along with some cracked pepper and a bit of vinegar because that perks stuff up and I needed to empty the jar...a quart jar with a table spoon of service berry vinegar in it is a waste of tiny space).   Anyway, it was great.  And the thermos SEALED to the point I could not open it.  I couldn't open it with two people trying at the same time (one holds it and one tries to crank the lid...nothing).  I tried banging on it, warming it, etc.  Stuck.   Yesterday I found someone incredibly strong and we got it open.  But on Sunday...no lunch and I was away from home.  I cracked!  Got a coffee and a cookie (bad idea...made me hungrier).  So, a burger and tots as a major treat.  Threw my sodium level above the OK range...dang it!!

Anyway, today is a make up day.  Sunday night I made a rye berry and lentil pilaf with some onion powder, a bouillon cube, various other flavors, lentils and a can of artichoke hearts (thanks Chris!) and it is delicious.   I have a serving of soup left and most of the pilaf.  That and the eggs I had for breakfast will keep me going at least today.  Possibly tomorrow.

ALSO finally got my radish seeds for sprouts going and have nearly 1.5pints of sprouts ready.  Still have tons of seeds.  Sprouting at the office where it is reasonably warm and the temperature is fairly steady worked.  Sprouting at home did not work.  Dang it all.  But now I know.  And I will put those in the soup today, or half of them.  It's a lot.

I should do a follow up on this...like my new favorite recipes.  And how I will change my pantry stock staples (more whole grains please!!).

Anyway: what I know I have left;

3 pints chicken broth (home canned)

2 pints duck meat (seriously)

1 smoked duck carcass that I can't even deal with so it might go to the chickens.  It's frozen in a bag in a tin on the porch so it will be fine for days yet, but I just have SO MUCH food and we had a hell of a time plucking the damn ducks that there are some feathers on the skin...maybe I can peel it and give the hide to the chickens and boil up the bones...that might work.  I do like duck bone broth and the residual smoke flavor comes through.

Gelatin:  this is a great thing to have!  Just this AM I decided to add 2T to my 2 eggs and anti-inflammatory spice mix breakfast (done in a microwave but highly edible).  It boosts protein rather than getting all calories from fat when the veg runs low, and is easier on my guts.  Also my hair and nails are fantastic.  Just mix the dry powder into the dry ingredients, and continue as usual.  I've also used it to beef up the protein in muffins and to compensate for lacking 1 egg (when I didn't want to open a new bag of powdered egg which also works well in baked goods and pancakes).  The texture is different but fine.  The eggs this morning fluffed up in volume to about 3x the usual and yet, still low sodium and lots of protein per calorie.

2+lbs coffee left.  Holiday gifts increased the supply.

Plenty of tea.

Plenty of herbs/spices/salt

Got pepper corns for christmas (Thanks Chris) so plenty of those left.  

A quart of cranberry juice (unsweetened) 

1.5quarts of berries preserved in vinegar

Plenty of vinegar 

Getting 2 eggs per day on average (once in a while 1 or 3) and so that's all fine

About a half a cup of lentils left,

A pint of dry garbanzos 

A half pint of dry peruana beans

A half cup of chicos

Small bag freeze dried corn

Small bag freeze dried blueberries

1-2lbs whole wheat flour

Bit of coconut flour

1 cup almond flour

3/4 quart vital wheat gluten

small bag psyllium husk

1 pint camelina seeds (those are pretty good in a keto-ish skillet bread that you then use for a fried egg sandwich with homemade mustard)

1/2pint gingered carrots...frozen

1/2 hand ginger

TONS of ingredients for the anti-inflammatory spice mix (turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg...sometimes ground ginger)

1 little can of tomato paste

1/2 bag dried mushrooms

2 small bags dried chilis

1 cup dried veggie soup mix

1.5 bags powdered egg

3/4 bag powdered coconut milk

Plenty of stevia

1/2 bottle olive oil

1/4 lb coconut oil

4oz baking cocoa

plenty of leavening (baking soda, baking powder, yeast)

squash seeds (saved from squash...some will go to the chickens because I am not going to get them eaten)

1 qt of beet kvass

1/2 jar olives (thanks Chris!!  Might have some with lunch)

1.5 rolls TP

There are probably other things of note that I am forgetting.

So, tons of calories left, tons of vitamins and protein left.  If I needed to, I could easily go another month and not starve or have any negative health effects. I could run out of fat for frying if I weren't careful.  I am totally out of sugar/honey/maple syrup (well, I have some maple water in the syrup bottle to get the last of the sweetness out) so my sweet tooth would suffer.  

Power Outage...but NOT at my place

 So I'm driving home, as one does when work is over AND the power keeps going on and off at the office.

The power was back on in the town where I work, but then, everything was dark.  A car was off the road and a tree or two down.  Of course, it's 5pm and pitch dark because we are having a wind storm with a bit of rain.  Clouds.  No moon or stars.  Then I notice, also only like one lighted window per house along the road, the occassional porch light, probably solar.

It took me a bit, but then I figured out the power was out.  Possibly due to the downed trees or car jammed against a power pole (brand new power pole....busted in half).

At my house, the solar panels are still up (knocking on wood now) and I have as much power as I ever do after a cloudy day.

My life didn't change. 

This makes me smirk.   All the preppers with crap in their giant a$$ freezers are now finding a bit crap in their pants.  I keep shelf stable things that can freeze and thaw a few times (dry beans, dry yeast, flour, pasta in jars).  With the wind there won't be a fire in my stove tonight, but it's still 50 degs outside so it's not a problem.  Sometimes it gets down to freezing in here on a windy night, but still, I might need to take a couple of frozen eggs and make pancakes instead of scrambled eggs.

Those with frozen meat and fridges are hoping that the massive power outage is over soon, or it freezes hard (well, those who realize they can put things outside if it's cold enough want it to freeze.  Those with pellet stoves or electric heat are not that much for it),

Yesterday it was windy, but also sunny enough that I ran a little space heater most of the day when I was inside so my toes were warm.  I didn't really need it, but, why not?  The batteries were full and everything past that isn't stored up anyway.

So, there you go.  Solar wins again.

I'm Baaaa_aaaack!

 The radio show is going to be IN THE STUDIO tomorrow!!!  Woot woot!

We've been zooming from 3 locations into the station where the intrepid station manager then beamed us out to the universe and the greater Moscow Idaho metropolitan area.   Since...um...like a really long time ago.  The before times.   

I looked it up:  Sunday March 29, 2020.   Re-opening to many in person shows June 21, 2020  

Peace Radio, the show I am on with friends, was the last live show other than 3 people who kept the station going and were the only ones in the station for those many months.  

Tomorrow, Peace Radio may be the first live DJ show, again, other than the three who kept the station going for many months...the first of the regular mortals...back on the air.

The official semi-reopening will be Monday but I begged for the dispensation to come in a day early and got it.

Very grateful to the station manager and others who worked through this and helped our show and others zoom in live, helped some develop and record shows remotely and send them in as sound files, and just simply kept the poop in a group.

I may miss doing the show from the shed and I know people will miss all the cocks...I mean my roosters crowing (there have been 3 over the 'rona times) in the back ground.   Today the wild roses are in full bloom and the breeze out of the south is blowing it through my windows.  That would be nice during the show, but the motorcycles and semi trucks blasting down the highway and blowing horns and blaring music won't be nice. Hence I end up shutting the windows anyway.

During 'rona I picked up an accidental side gig, got another phase of the house built, learned to combing yoga and jenga and twister (yengster?  twonga?  jisga?) in order to do yoga in the wee shed over zoom or off recorded sessions from the Moscow Yoga Center, off youtube or out of my head.   I realized again JUST HOW CRAMPED it is here for yoga with a 34" inseam and seriously long arms, when I visited an aunt and really loved the boiler room for yoga.  I could spread my arms out and not burn them on a stove or bust a knuckle of the loft ladder.  In July, I can go back to the yoga studio once a week or so.  That should be amazing too.  I wonder if I can even DO yoga while suppressing toots anymore.  When one yogas at home, one farts proudly.  The class will be simulcast to those who prefer to stay home or need to, so the toots could be broadcast.  

Things are open again here.  I am aware they are not so open elsewhere.  I hope this too shall pass for us all.